Deeplinks Blog posts about Cyber Security Legislation

Last week, the Obama Administration released an Executive Order on network and Internet security, also known as "cybersecurity," for critical infrastructure and other companies. The order shows how largely unnecessary CISPA is and should encourage users to oppose the privacy-invasive cybersecurity bill.

The domain name registrar Namecheap is running an awareness campaign against CISPA, the dangerous cybersecurity bill—and they're donating $1 to EFF for each tweet (#CISPAalert), Facebook share, and domain name bought using the code CISPAalert. Namecheap, a staunch opponent of SOPA last year, is now taking charge of spreading the word about CISPA's threats to your privacy.

It's official: The Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act was reintroduced in the House of Representatives yesterday. CISPA is the contentious bill civil liberties advocates fought last year, which would provide a poorly-defined "cybersecurity" exception to existing privacy law. CISPA offers broad immunities to companies who choose to share data with government agencies (including the private communications of users) in the name of cybersecurity. It also creates avenues for companies to share data with any federal agencies, including military intelligence agencies like the National Security Agency (NSA).

The government of the Philippines today has passed the troubling Cybercrime Prevention Act. The Act covers a range of offenses, but—as we wrote last month—is particularly problematic because of a libel provision that criminalizes anonymous online criticism.

In addition to criminalizing online libel, Section 19 of the Act would also allow the country’s Department of Justice to block access to “computer data” that is in violation of the Act; in other words, a website hosting criminally libelous speech could be shut down without a court order.